Immediately, hearing what Penelope just said, without wasting another second, Cora felt something snap inside her chest. All the years of putting up with Penelope's nonsense, all the times she had bitten her tongue and tried to be the bigger person - it all came flooding out at once.
"Keep your mouth shut right now!" Cora said, her voice rising to match Penelope's energy.
"If you lack basic manners and don't know how to conduct yourself properly, that doesn't mean you should start disgracing yourself in public like this!" She pointed her finger directly at Penelope, not caring anymore about being polite or diplomatic.
"Nobody literally invited you to this table, nobody asked you to come over here and bother us, and nobody requested your presence or your opinions. You literally volunteered to come poke your nose into something that doesn't concern you in the slightest, so why are you standing here insulting people and blabbing up and down like some kind of crazy person?"
